Good News: Business Applications Continue to Rise – August 2025 Data

By SBE Council at 12 September, 2025, 2:11 pm

by Raymond J. Keating –

As an economist who focuses a great deal on public policy and its effects on the economy, it’s been too easy for too long to get a bit gloomy. Fortunately, I also focus on entrepreneurship and small business, and that’s where I regain my optimism and energy.

The trend since the pandemic regarding business applications data particularly flows with optimism. And that continued in the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Seasonally-adjusted business applications increased by 0.5 percent in August, registering 473,679. That included an increase of 0.8 percent, hitting 169,871, in high-propensity business applications, which are applications most likely to turn into businesses with employees.

The following charts make clear the dramatic step up in business applications since the pandemic. This, again, is a key source of optimism about the current and future state of the American economy.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED

These numbers – which, as noted by the Census Bureau, are “business applications for tax IDs as indicated by applications for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) through filings of the IRS Form SS-4” – are not actual businesses. But a share of these applications will become businesses.

Of course, a host of factors affect the incentives, decisions and abilities to transform applications into businesses. Elected officials and policymakers can influence such matters via policies that provide tax and regulatory relief, access to markets – including global markets, and strong property rights.

Too often, policymakers forget or ignore the centrality of entrepreneurship to innovation, creativity, vitality and economic growth. Many also misunderstand critical sources of entrepreneurship, such as immigration, and the essential role that investors play in funding entrepreneurial ventures. Fortunately, millions of American entrepreneurs work hard to make their dreams come true by providing new and improved goods and services to others. Their critical work can be helped or hindered by policymakers, but I am consistently buoyed by the entrepreneurial spirit.

Raymond J. Keating is chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. He is the author of “The Weekly Economist” book series, and 10 Points from Walt Disney on Entrepreneurship.